Emily O’Brien interview

LS: So, what’s your name?
EO: My name is Emily O’Brien.
LS: And what year are you graduating in?
EO: 2012
LS: And have you been at Scripps all four years?
EO: Yes.
LS: What made you choose Scripps?
EO: Initially, I told my college counselor that I didn’t want any college that was a
women’s college, and then I ended up choosing between two women’s colleges. And
Scripps jumped out to me. I remember getting a thing in the mail that said, “if you…”
like, “one through ten, then you should think about Scripps.” And I remember
reading the first one and being like, “that completely applies to me,” and the next
one, being like, “that one too!” And the third, and the fourth and just feeling like,
“this school is perfect for me.” It wasn’t that pamphlet that made me come here but
I, I think that was kind of representative; there were a lot of things about Scripps
that kind of fit me well.
LS: Do you think you would have chosen Scripps is it wasn’t part of the consortium?
EO: I’ve thought about that so many times. I chose between Scripps and Bryn Mawr,
which is also in a consortium, but not as much. I don’t think so. I don’t think I
would’ve wanted to do that.
LS: How has the women’s college aspect of Scripps affected your time here?
EO: I love that it’s a women’s college. And when I first came here, and people would
ask me, like how was it being at a women’s college and I would say, “Oh pssh! It’s not
really a women’s college. There are all these other schools and…” But I’ve kind of
come away from that in the past few years and become more proud that I do go to a
women’s college. And I love the relationships that it’s allowed me to develop. I love
the way that it makes me feel about myself and think about myself. In the past
couple years, I have missed just having guy friends, because as easy as it is to like
have other types of relationships with guys here, I really miss having good guy
friends. But, I do love that part of it.
LS: What about Scripps do you think, and what about having a women’s college do
you think allows you to create those relationships?
EO: I think that we are allowed to explore a little more. As silly as it sounds, I think
the boys get in the way. I think that their opinions are taken into account more and
that girls here are allowed to explore who they are a little more fully. And that
because everyone is doing that, we kind of understand like, that I’m doing that and
so I want to support other people who are doing that because I need that support
from my friends too. And I think it kind of creates this network and this system of
like trust and support and love that wouldn’t necessarily come up in different
schools.
LS: Do you feel you’ve been given a feminist perspective?
EO: Yes.
LS: What do you think has created that?
EO: I don’t know. It’s hard to look back and remember how I thought about the
world before I came here. And I went to an all women’s… all girls – definitely not
women – middle school and so it’s always kind of been instilled in me, but definitely
so much stronger here. And I don’t know if I could even point to one part of it. It
feels like its come from the faculty, my classes, definitely my friends.
LS: How was your college decision different from your peers?
EO: In high school?
LS: Mmhmm.
EO: I went to The College Preparatory School and I was maybe the only person that I
knew who didn’t go to an Ivy or to one of the best liberal arts or like the top five
liberal arts colleges in the nation. And I was definitely the only one that went to an
all women’s college. I mean I don’t know if this is necessarily true, but one of my
goods friends goes to Princeton and I can very well see the difference between how I
view the world after four years here and how he sees the world after four years
there. It’s definitely a more like, narrow focus I feel like at schools like that and, I
don’t know. The school that I chose was really different from the schools that my
friends chose and I think that I benefitted a lot from that decision.
4:51
LS: Were you conscious of that when you were applying?
EO: Yeah. I was really self‐conscious of that. My college counselor… so I decided
between Scripps and Bryn Mawr and Bryn Mawr is practically on par with Scripps
but because it’s on the East Coast and because I’m pretty sure the girls don’t do
anything there but study, he was really pushing for Bryn Mawr. And I just felt a lot of
pressure not to come here, not to come to like, the West Coast. Like everyone else
was leaving the state. I was feeling like I was going to a school that was just not as
good as the schools my friends were going to, but I think that Scripps challenged me
in ways that my friends were never challenged.
LS: How did Scripps live up to, or differ from your expectations of it?
EO: The consortium was kind of disappointing in that, that all the stigmas and like, I
don’t know, definitely the stigma against Scripps, and that was kind of
disappointing. And I thought it was going to be a little easier to make friends at
other schools. And like, it’s been fine, but I had a very idealistic view of how that was
all going to play out. I don’t know if I should actually say that I’ve kind of realized
that there’s a pretty big disconnect between the administration and the students
and faculty. And that like the big happy family that Scripps makes itself out to be
isn’t necessarily existent. But generally, it’s been wonderful and it’s lived up to my
expectations.
LS: So, you mentioned the stigmas against Scripps. What other stereotypes exist on
the campuses?
EO: For all the campuses? You want me to say the stuff that everyone kind of knows?
So Scripps, I feel like, is in kind of a sticky situation because it’s not just one
stereotype. It’s like we can really win with anything. There’s the raging lesbian
feminist and the ditsy slut. And then here I am, like I wish that these didn’t exist but
at the same time, I don’t think I’ve met a guy from CMC who isn’t kind of like a
douche and a jock. Pomona: pretty elitist, but generally pretty well rounded and you
can find some normal people there. Pitzer: they don’t really care, social activists,
smoke weed a lot. Harvey Mudd: too smart to function in the social world. Is that it?
LS: Yeah. How true do you think all of those are?
EO: CMC I really think is true. I really think that’s true. Harvey Mudd: I’ve met some
exceptions, but generally they’re pretty smart and they’re not the best socially.
Pitzer: definitely social activists. They don’t smoke weed as much as I… I think
Scripps students smoke just as much weed. Pomona: I do think they are pretty well
rounded. Scripps: I think that when people come into Scripps, they can act like ditsy
sluts, but I think so can most freshmen in college because they just don’t know what
they’re doing. And then raging lesbian feminists? Maybe! So what? I think that’s fine.
And like in a way, I guess I could categorize a lot of my friends like that. But yeah, I
don’t think that’s a huge problem.
LS: How big of a role do they play in social dynamics here?
EO: I guess it’s hard to say because now that I’m a senior, I feel like the friends that I
have off campus aren’t really people that I met from random parties. They’re people
that I know from classes or like friends of friends, so they’re real relationships.
People really know me and so I don’t feel like anyone holds me to those standards
anymore. But definitely in the first couple years I feel like… I notice a lot of Scripps
girls lying about where they go to school and I’ve heard about a lot of guys at other
schools who have certain expectations for Scripps girls and will like target them
because of those expectations. Yeah.
LS: What do you think of the 5C social scene in general?
EO: I think it’s pretty frustrating. I had a really serious boyfriend the first two years
that I was here and so I didn’t really pay attention to that whole side of it. And I was
so busy making friends with everyone at Scripps that I didn’t really care about
making friends really with people either. But breaking up with my boyfriend, and so
experiencing that and then also kind of feeling really solid in my friends here and
like wanting to explore more has made me realize how difficult it is here. And it
doesn’t feel like the real world and I’m not sure why. Yeah, still trying to figure it
out.
10:26
LS: How acceptable are drinking and drug use here?
EO: Pretty acceptable, I’d say. Yeah.
LS: [laughs] And what do you think the dating scene like is here?
EO: I think the dating scene does not exist. But I guess I know my friends who date
are like my most attractive friends. And not to say that they’re not also wonderful
people, but I think that people are more likely to take them on a date because they…
I don’t know. They want to go farther than that, too. Yeah, I think the dating scene
doesn’t exist. I think it’s a hook up culture.
LS: What are the attitudes towards virginity and pre‐marital sex here?
EO: I think that it would be rare to find someone… actually… actually no. That’s not
true. Well, can I say this on camera? My friend… well, know actually, I shouldn’t say
that on camera. I think generally it’s viewed pretty negatively to be a virgin. I think
it’s expected–I think often times in this hook up scene it’s expected that you’ll just
have sex with random people.
LS: What do you think that comes from?
EO: I have no idea. Part of it is, I think, just the idea that these are four years that we
will never have again and we’re supposed to go as crazy as we possibly can. And that
after our time here, we’re going to have to be responsible. And these are good
schools and the kids here are really smart and I think a lot of people graduate and
they get real jobs and they begin real life. And I think there’s kind of pressure to like
let off steam. And also, I guess we work really hard here. But I think maybe it is just
a part of that: that these are the only four years that we can kind of get away with
whatever we want to get away with and I think it’s also just been like a vicious cycle
that people like wanted to start doing that and it slowly just became like what
people do and over time it just hasn’t really been questioned. But, I don’t, I don’t
really know.
LS: How do you think that differs from outside of the Claremont bubble? Do you
think it’s similar on other college campuses?
EO: I think that on other campuses you get to know people more. Like my friends
who go to Middlebury or Williams; those are small schools and they know people
and so hooking up randomly doesn’t really happen. And when you’re not hooking up
randomly, there’s a lot more discussion that goes into like premarital sex. And I
think there’s the ability to abstain if you want to because you are naturally going to
engage in conversation with those people who are like your friends or friends of
friends. But just because for whatever reason it’s so much more likely here to have
that be a random encounter.
LS: Do you think the fact that there are five schools here makes the random
encounter more possible?
EO: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. But, what’s weird is that 5,000 seems really big. But then
once you have that random encounter, you realize it’s not actually that random and
that person actually does know a billion other people that you know. But, but yeah,
definitely if it was smaller, I think it wouldn’t be as big of a problem.
LS: What do you think are the attitudes towards LGBTQ and that community?
EO: Well, the friends that I have are very much engaged in that community and so
I’m around a lot of people who have nothing but positive attitudes. But I’ve actually
been thinking about it a lot recently, as I’ve noticed that I’m definitely in a bubble.
And I’m not sure. I’ve talked to some people at Pomona even, who just feel so far
from that. So, it is most definitely not all encompassing here, but I think that
generally, I would like to think that The Claremont Colleges are kind of on the
forefront of a lot of the discussion about LGBTQ, and as I’ve learned its like “TTQ”
like the longest acronym ever. Yeah, I think that our discussions about gender here
are really interesting and really forward thinking. And it definitely doesn’t apply to
everybody here. I don’t think that CMC has forums where they talk about things like
that all the time. That’s a generalization, but I don’t know. I really appreciate that
about the colleges.
15:31
LS: Do you think that’s linked to the fact that it’s a women’s college?
EO: That’s a good question. I don’t know if it comes from Scripps because I feel like it
just as easily could come from Pitzer. I think part of it is. Like I was saying earlier,
that I think we have the ability here to figure ourselves out and question things and
kind of be whoever we want to be, and like within this very supported community.
So, I think it leaves a lot more room here for things like that to be questioned and
discussed, but definitely not only in Scripps.
LS: How does diversity play a role on campus?
EO: There is no diversity. There is very little diversity. I like that this year Antoinette
as president, she brought it more into the forefront of discussion, but I don’t even
really know how to answer that because everything that I’ve really encountered
with diversity has been a lot of like clashing heads and really tough discussions
about how hard it is that we don’t really have diversity here. And, you know,
discussions about the core curriculum, about how it really is just the focus of like
white history. And I think Scripps could, or all five colleges could do a lot to work on
that.
LS: What do you think they could do?
EO: I mean it’s hard. I think it’s hard in any elite college to pull from, I don’t know,
like the necessary areas and groups that would maybe need to be like pulled. But,
maybe like what people are talking about with the core thing: changing the
curriculum to kind of more encompass different perspectives of history and
different perspectives of our present. And another thing that I think would be
interesting here is if they can’t really bring in diversity, maybe we could bring in
more discussions of whiteness and white privilege and what that means. And so
engaging students that way. But, generally I think there are a lot of students and
faculty who would be willing to have discussions like that. So, I think they could
easily be implemented.
LS: And you mentioned about the core class. How do you think core, as a whole
series, has affected your experience here?
EO: Oh god. I don’t know if necessarily has, honestly. Core I, I liked, but I was never
really sure what I was supposed to be taking from it. Core II: I got stuck with a Core
II that I just didn’t want and that I really didn’t enjoy. Core III was awesome, but
generally, I don’t think the core like sparked any particular interest that wouldn’t
have been sparked otherwise or gave me any like terminology or language that I
wouldn’t have found otherwise. I can’t even remember what our theme was for core
my freshman year so, yeah.
LS: Which core courses were you in?
EO: The Nature of Nature. And I really liked this one with Cindy Forster, but I can’t
remember exactly... It was like “Race, Class and Gender in…” like “Working Los
Angeles.” And we all got internships and it was really cool. I worked at the Garment
Worker’s Center in downtown LA and it was really interesting, but we had a ton of
reading. Yeah, I liked that one.
LS: What is your major?
EO: Psychology
LS: And what made you choose psychology?
EO: It was kind of a process of elimination coming into school because I knew I
didn’t like math and I knew I wasn’t that great at science and didn’t want to do
English and I just love people. And I think I’ve always thought psychologically, so it
just kind of seemed natural when I got here.
19:58
LS: Do you have any post‐college plans yet?
EO: Yes, kind of. Okay. My post‐college plans are that I’m going to graduate and
move to Seattle because I spent the summer there and I love the city. I’m from the
Bay Area. And I’m going to move there and maybe do swim lessons because
apparently you can charge $50 an hour to do that. And I just want to make a bunch
of money. Somehow maybe stay on track with what I’m interested in and like
volunteer or do something like that. And then after six months or so maybe ‘til like
December when the weather in Seattle is just driving me insane, I want to travel.
And I’m thinking about a NOLS program, the National Outdoor Leadership School.
Or, because those are so expensive, I’ve also kind of mapped out like a travel up the
coast of Latin America for ten months plan doing random things like that. And then
after doing that for maybe ten months or something like that, three to ten months
depending on what I decide to do, I want to get a kind of real job, but mostly still
play. And then, I’m thinking like in three years from now, I’ll apply to graduate
school for occupational therapy in either Seattle or Boston or something like that.
LS: What made you choose that?
EO: Occupational therapy?
LS: Yeah.
EO: I had worked with autistic toddlers three years ago at the children’s hospital in
Oakland and I loved it. And then last summer I worked with kids with
developmental disabilities in a garden in Seattle and I loved that. And now I’m
writing my thesis on horticultural therapy. And so I think I want to do something
like that. And so occupational therapy is a really broad degree that I think would
allow me to kind of play around within those various interests and do something
that I like later on.
LS: How has Scripps helped you pursue these future goals?
EO: Well practically, the CP&R. Best. Love them. Love Gretchen. So that’s been really
helpful. But I like that Scripps has not forced me into thinking that I need to
graduate and get a full time job. And that I feel not only excited, but like very much
supported in my decision to kind of do whatever I want. And definitely graduating
from high school, The College Preparatory School, I would not have been comfortable
taking a three‐year long gap year just to kind of play around and to like work at a
pool and make money. And I think Scripps has made me feel like there are a lot of
ways to learn and a lot of ways to be a good and active member of society and that I
can be happy and do what I want while simultaneously kind of giving back. And so,
more than anything I feel like Scripps has taught me that I will be okay and it’s given
me the tools to be okay. And I think that I’m well educated and I understand the
world pretty well at this point. And like no one’s really said this so I don’t know
where this lesson is coming from but I feel pretty supported in my ideas of what I
want to do. Yeah.
LS: Is your family as supportive as you feel Scripps is?
EO: Yes, so that’s probably a big part of it too, as long as I make money. But I think
my family, I’m the first kid in the family and I think they’ve always been surprised.
The other thing is that Scripps has helped me. During my time here, I’ve done a lot of
internships and all kind of like along the same line of what I want to do. And I got a
grant my freshman year to work with the autistic toddlers in Oakland. And so I think
my family has always kind of been like, “Whoa! You have another internship?” and
like, “Whoa! That’s, that’s something!” And I think that they feel like I’m kind of
ahead of the game in some ways because I know what I want to do; I’ve had practice
with what I want to do. And so I think for that reason, they’re fine. They kind of trust
that I’ll be okay because I’ve kind of done it on my own up until this point and yeah.
So that’s probably a big part of it.
LS: Do you think that most of your peers here have similar experiences?
EO: You mean like getting internships and things like that?
LS: Mmhmm.
EO: Not necessarily. I know that like last summer a lot of my friends had really cool
jobs and internships. But not necessarily. I think a lot of my friends have similar
goals for after we graduate, but I don’t know if all of them really feel like they have
already started that path that they want to be on like I do.
25:08
LS: Did you go abroad?
EO: Yes, I went to Spain–Grenada.
LS: How was that?
EO: It was great! So great! Yeah, you want me to talk about it more?
LS: Yeah [laughs]
EO: I love Spain because… well, so I went abroad with… maybe you could cut this
out later, I don’t know if it will actually be relevant, but I went abroad with my exboyfriend
now. And that kind of tainted my whole experience there because we
essentially began breaking up when we decided to go together. And it was like the
first time we weren’t doing long distance and so that definitely tainted the
experience a little bit. But, apart from that, I love Spain because it calmed me down.
The Spanish are just, like you have three hours in the middle of the day or five hours
when everything shuts down and you have to go take a nap. And like you have to eat
and take a nap and spend time with you family. And I didn’t have that much work
and I could explore and it was a beautiful city and I loved my friends. And it was just,
it was a semester of just kind of like living life and realizing, which I think my grades
after I came back suffered because of that, because it was kind of like well the world
is not about school. But yeah and all my friends went abroad too and everyone kind
of came back with like a similar attitude. Most of them went to Latin America, but I
had an incredible time: learned Spanish, forgot it now, but I did know it, traveled a
lot. That was another thing, was I think that being abroad taught me also that I’m
kind of, for whatever reason, I feel really taken care of in the world. I went to Ireland
with my friend. It was just me and her and all these things almost went wrong, but
then something at the last minute would happen so that they didn’t and it could
have been a really bad situation but at the last minute it wasn’t. And I just left kind
of feeling safe and also capable. There were also so many times that I was just
completely lost or that we had just missed a train that we had to catch and we had to
figure something else out. So I felt a lot more independent, competent. I also spent
so much time in my own head in Spain because I lived farther away from – I
requested siblings and so I lived with one of the only families that had siblings and I
lived really far from my friends so I probably walked like two or three hours by
myself every single day. And I spent so much time in my own head and the result
was: well one, that I translated all these Christmas songs into Spanish, but two, that I
kind of learned to really love myself a lot and like trust myself and kind of consider
myself a friend in a way that I hadn’t before. All around great experience.
LS: That’s really cool. What has your favorite class been here?
EO: US Environmental History at Pomona with Char Miller.
LS: Why? What was great about it?
EO: He is an incredible professor in that the way he facilitates discussion is amazing.
He has a point that he wants you to reach and he won’t tell it to you, but the way that
he asks questions and gets people to kind of like dig into their own thoughts, he gets
us to come to the conclusions he wants us to come to. And the conclusions were just
fascinating! It’s a subject I’m really interested in and kind of related to what I’m
doing for my thesis. I’m really interested in the psychology of environmentalism and
of like environmental degradation. Like how did we get to the point that we’re at
here? And we talked a lot about that in his class so generally the subject was just
really interesting to me and it was re‐conceptualizing the way that we see the
wilderness. Yeah, I guess that’s mostly it. And the people in that class were fantastic
and everyone was smart and motivated and everyone did the reading. There was a
girl who audited the class and she would come to class with her book like
completely marked up ready to talk and like there was no one that was there just to
be there. Everyone really wanted to be there. We all had great chemistry and he’s
just such a fantastic teacher.
29:34
LS: What was the most memorable thing you’ve read in any class?
EO: That’s such a hard question. I bet if you gave me like a week, something would
pop into my head. I can’t think of anything except everything we read in that class.
Yeah, but I feel like there have been multiple times that it’s not like a full reading
ever, but just like an idea in a reading and I’m like, “Oh my god! I never thought of
that before!” Or, just any of those classes that I’ve had that get you to reconceptualize
the world. But, also here I feel like some of the most memorable
things that I have learned or read have been in like outside forums or like outside
movies or things that just haven’t been in the classroom at all.
LS: So apart from academics, what extracurricular activities are you involved in?
EO: I’m a lifeguard, but I only started that this year. I was really involved in the
Scripps Garden sophomore year. I helped paint that mural and we kind of like put it
together in a lot of ways because it had been ignored before that. So I was really
involved in environmental club for that whole year. What else have I done here? A
lot of my friends are involved in the motley and I pretend like I work there, but I
don’t. I’ve done a lot of stuff here, but I think I’ve kind of done a lot of it off campus.
Yeah. Something else might pop to mind but…
LS: What off campus things do you do?
EO: Well I had that thing at the Garment Worker’s Center. I tutored kids of
immigrant families in English last semester through a Spanish class at Pitzer. I
worked at a farm last spring: Amy’s farm, in Ontatio. And I fed all the animals and I
learned to drive a tractor and worked in the garden a little bit. What else have I
done? I feel like there’s more but I can’t think of it.
LS: How do you think these have shaped your Scripps experience?
EO: I feel like they have just complimented my experience. Most of the things I’ve
done have either been through classes or been through –like the farm, I learned
about the farm through environmental club. So I think that it’s given me like a more
well rounded idea of these things that I’ve learned here. Definitely.
LS: How do you think Scripps has changed over your time here?
EO: I don’t know if Scripps has changed, or if just the way that me and my friends
and my peers have learned to be in Scripps has changed. Because when I came here,
I was so much focused on myself and how I was doing and how I was going to be
okay and like my family back home and my life back home, that I don’t know if I
even really had a focus on anything real here. I was just kind of like going through
the motions and like trying to get by. And I don’t think I ever really thought deeply
about connections between students and faculty or the way that we approach
environmentalism or like any of the things that I really think about now just because
now that I’m so grounded in Scripps I think I have a completely different perspective
on it. So, I don’t know if I could even answer. But I do love LBV. She was new my
sophomore year. I think she’s great.
LS: What do you think she’s added to the Scripps community?
EO: I mean more than anything because I don’t know her that well, but I like that she
is approachable and accessible. I mean just that when I came in here we didn’t really
have a president. We had an interim president and he felt really distanced from the
students and I think that in a lot of ways she’s kind of like tied our community into, I
don’t know, into a whole, in a way that it wasn’t before her.
LS: What do you think is the role of politics on campus?
EO: What do you mean?
LS: Do you think students are politically charged in any ways?
EO: Yes, definitely. But I’m not sure what I could say about it. Yeah, I think
everyone’s pretty politically charged. And I think that there are a lot of students at
Pomona, Scripps, and Pitzer especially who are outspoken and who aren’t afraid to
question things. Because I think that we’re privileged here and that we’re able to
speak our minds and be socially active and without really any repercussion. So I
think that just calls for a lot of like political and social action and discussion. But
yeah, so that’s been great for me because when I came in here, I definitely didn’t
think much about social or political issues. Well, I mean I did, but not nearly to the
extent that I do now.
35:32
LS: What do you think the issues here are on campus?
EO: Also a hard question because I feel like its kind of everything. But students
generally are pretty liberal. Right now, the two main things are Occupy, which a lot
of students are either going to and experiencing for themselves or discussing with
others, and the Pomona workers thing that’s going on at Pomona where they’ve
asked workers and students and faculty to show their documentation. So, I think
those are the two biggest things going on.
LS: What do you think about the Occupy Claremont club?
EO: I don’t know that much about the Occupy club. I’ve been trying to figure out how
I feel about Occupy generally. I think that, because I went to Occupy LA last week
with a group of kids, or two weeks ago, and it was really interesting to see. What’s
the club doing? Are they just… are they like trying to organize like an Occupy
Claremont thing to have happen here?
LS: I’ve heard they’re getting clothes, or warm winter clothes to donate to occupiers
in the cities.
EO: Oh, okay, okay. Well then, in that case I think that sounds really cool. I think that
Occupy generally is really effective in that it shows that everyone knows what’s
going on. Everyone understands the injustice that is the corporate greed. And I like
the way that it unites people who ordinarily wouldn’t really have a voice, who don’t
have the privileges to be able to speak out politically. I like that Occupy is so
accessible that there are no specific or like not many specific political like
statements being made, or like parties that it’s being associated with. But, yeah.
That’s what I think about that, but not about the club, so I won’t continue.
LS: Because over the course of you time here has been a lot of big social, or social
and political things going on in the rest of the world. Do you think that students a lot
of times have been able to get out of the Claremont bubble?
EO: I was just talking about this with my friends the other day because we watched
Inside Job, which essentially just explained the financial situation since the
depression – the Great Depression. And all of us were saying, “Where the heck were
we in 2008?” because I missed everything! I was focused on the election. A lot of
people were talking about the election and there was a lot of discussion going on
surrounding that but apart from that, with the recession and everything, and what
was really causing the recession, and the arguments behind that went straight over
our heads. I think because we were so focused on being here. And if we were
sophomores, maybe it would have been different, but the fact that we were
freshmen as we were just trying to like get a grip on our situation here. I had no idea
about a lot of that stuff. So, in that sense, I don’t know. I feel like you have to make a
really big effort to get out of the Claremont bubble and especially just because, and I
don’t know if this is Claremont or just college, the amount with which we are
bombarded with work all the time. For me to just open up the New York Times and
read it feels like I need at least like a half hour window and I never feel like I have
that. So actually trying to put that in my day has been a struggle the last couple
years. And I’ve managed to do it but it’s weird how that kind of feels like a privilege,
rather than something I should absolutely be doing, you know? So, I think that
understanding what’s going on politically in the world is a challenge here.
LS: Do you go off campus often?
EO: I always do a little more at the beginning of the semester because I have a car
and so it’s possible for me to. But, not much, and usually when I do, my friends and I
just like go for a hike or something like that just to get away from school. But as the
semester progresses, it’s always impossible to find the time to do it.
40:08
LS: Do you participate in any sports?
EO: Mmm‐mm. I did swimming in high school and I wish I could do it here but I
don’t. I’m not good enough.
LS: Do you think people here, what do you think the atmosphere towards sports and
the sports scene?
EO: I really wish that there was a bigger sports scene. I think it’d be so fun to be able
to go to football games and things like that. And I did freshman year, but now I
definitely feel like if you don’t know people on the teams, it’s kind of weird just to
go. And, my dad’s always like, “Oh I heard about so‐and‐so” or like, “this team did
this.” And I’m always like, “I have no idea.” I don’t really pay attention to it. I wish it
was a bigger deal but I know nothing.
LS: Why do you think people don’t care about it?
EO: I mean on the one hand, we’re just not that good, I think generally. But also I
think because of like the way like our size or something. I feel like it calls for kind of
like what I said. If you don’t really know the people on the teams, I don’t know if
you’re going to be as inclined just to go and watch strangers because there’s no like
school pride. I feel like there’s friend pride, and you want to go and support your
friends, but at least at Scripps, yeah.
LS: Do you think it’s different on the other four C’s?
EO: I think it probably is. I think Pomona is like a normal school in a lot of ways.
They have school pride and they make up most of the sports teams on the Pomona‐
Pitzer teams because Pitzer’s so small. And so I think it’s like easier for them. And
same with like CMC: that they dominate the CMS team and so it’s easier for them to
have a little more pride. So probably. But for the other schools, I don’t really think
like… Pitzer and Scripps and Mudd are just kind like… there.
LS: Do you think that Scripps has its own pride even if its not necessarily sports
related?
EO: Yeah, I think that people who go to Scripps are proud that the go to Scripps
because it’s pride in being affiliated with like a certain family. And I think that most
people who graduate from here recognize the ways in which Scripps changed them
and their friends. Yeah, just like recognizing that connection and feeling pride in
kind of like knowing where you come from and like knowing your roots here.
LS: Is there anything we’ve talked about that you want to add to?
EO: I don’t think so. I can’t think of anything.
LS: Is there anything I have not addressed that you want to say?
EO: No [laughs]
LS: Awesome!
EO: Okay, thanks!
LS: Thanks!
43:10

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LS: So, what’s your name?
EO: My name is Emily O’Brien.
LS: And what year are you graduating in?
EO: 2012
LS: And have you been at Scripps all four years?
EO: Yes.
LS: What made you choose Scripps?
EO: Initially, I told my college counselor that I didn’t want any college that was a
women’s college, and then I ended up choosing between two women’s colleges. And
Scripps jumped out to me. I remember getting a thing in the mail that said, “if you…”
like, “one through ten, then you should think about Scripps.” And I remember
reading the first one and being like, “that completely applies to me,” and the next
one, being like, “that one too!” And the third, and the fourth and just feeling like,
“this school is perfect for me.” It wasn’t that pamphlet that made me come here but
I, I think that was kind of representative; there were a lot of things about Scripps
that kind of fit me well.
LS: Do you think you would have chosen Scripps is it wasn’t part of the consortium?
EO: I’ve thought about that so many times. I chose between Scripps and Bryn Mawr,
which is also in a consortium, but not as much. I don’t think so. I don’t think I
would’ve wanted to do that.
LS: How has the women’s college aspect of Scripps affected your time here?
EO: I love that it’s a women’s college. And when I first came here, and people would
ask me, like how was it being at a women’s college and I would say, “Oh pssh! It’s not
really a women’s college. There are all these other schools and…” But I’ve kind of
come away from that in the past few years and become more proud that I do go to a
women’s college. And I love the relationships that it’s allowed me to develop. I love
the way that it makes me feel about myself and think about myself. In the past
couple years, I have missed just having guy friends, because as easy as it is to like
have other types of relationships with guys here, I really miss having good guy
friends. But, I do love that part of it.
LS: What about Scripps do you think, and what about having a women’s college do
you think allows you to create those relationships?
EO: I think that we are allowed to explore a little more. As silly as it sounds, I think
the boys get in the way. I think that their opinions are taken into account more and
that girls here are allowed to explore who they are a little more fully. And that
because everyone is doing that, we kind of understand like, that I’m doing that and
so I want to support other people who are doing that because I need that support
from my friends too. And I think it kind of creates this network and this system of
like trust and support and love that wouldn’t necessarily come up in different
schools.
LS: Do you feel you’ve been given a feminist perspective?
EO: Yes.
LS: What do you think has created that?
EO: I don’t know. It’s hard to look back and remember how I thought about the
world before I came here. And I went to an all women’s… all girls – definitely not
women – middle school and so it’s always kind of been instilled in me, but definitely
so much stronger here. And I don’t know if I could even point to one part of it. It
feels like its come from the faculty, my classes, definitely my friends.
LS: How was your college decision different from your peers?
EO: In high school?
LS: Mmhmm.
EO: I went to The College Preparatory School and I was maybe the only person that I
knew who didn’t go to an Ivy or to one of the best liberal arts or like the top five
liberal arts colleges in the nation. And I was definitely the only one that went to an
all women’s college. I mean I don’t know if this is necessarily true, but one of my
goods friends goes to Princeton and I can very well see the difference between how I
view the world after four years here and how he sees the world after four years
there. It’s definitely a more like, narrow focus I feel like at schools like that and, I
don’t know. The school that I chose was really different from the schools that my
friends chose and I think that I benefitted a lot from that decision.
4:51
LS: Were you conscious of that when you were applying?
EO: Yeah. I was really self‐conscious of that. My college counselor… so I decided
between Scripps and Bryn Mawr and Bryn Mawr is practically on par with Scripps
but because it’s on the East Coast and because I’m pretty sure the girls don’t do
anything there but study, he was really pushing for Bryn Mawr. And I just felt a lot of
pressure not to come here, not to come to like, the West Coast. Like everyone else
was leaving the state. I was feeling like I was going to a school that was just not as
good as the schools my friends were going to, but I think that Scripps challenged me
in ways that my friends were never challenged.
LS: How did Scripps live up to, or differ from your expectations of it?
EO: The consortium was kind of disappointing in that, that all the stigmas and like, I
don’t know, definitely the stigma against Scripps, and that was kind of
disappointing. And I thought it was going to be a little easier to make friends at
other schools. And like, it’s been fine, but I had a very idealistic view of how that was
all going to play out. I don’t know if I should actually say that I’ve kind of realized
that there’s a pretty big disconnect between the administration and the students
and faculty. And that like the big happy family that Scripps makes itself out to be
isn’t necessarily existent. But generally, it’s been wonderful and it’s lived up to my
expectations.
LS: So, you mentioned the stigmas against Scripps. What other stereotypes exist on
the campuses?
EO: For all the campuses? You want me to say the stuff that everyone kind of knows?
So Scripps, I feel like, is in kind of a sticky situation because it’s not just one
stereotype. It’s like we can really win with anything. There’s the raging lesbian
feminist and the ditsy slut. And then here I am, like I wish that these didn’t exist but
at the same time, I don’t think I’ve met a guy from CMC who isn’t kind of like a
douche and a jock. Pomona: pretty elitist, but generally pretty well rounded and you
can find some normal people there. Pitzer: they don’t really care, social activists,
smoke weed a lot. Harvey Mudd: too smart to function in the social world. Is that it?
LS: Yeah. How true do you think all of those are?
EO: CMC I really think is true. I really think that’s true. Harvey Mudd: I’ve met some
exceptions, but generally they’re pretty smart and they’re not the best socially.
Pitzer: definitely social activists. They don’t smoke weed as much as I… I think
Scripps students smoke just as much weed. Pomona: I do think they are pretty well
rounded. Scripps: I think that when people come into Scripps, they can act like ditsy
sluts, but I think so can most freshmen in college because they just don’t know what
they’re doing. And then raging lesbian feminists? Maybe! So what? I think that’s fine.
And like in a way, I guess I could categorize a lot of my friends like that. But yeah, I
don’t think that’s a huge problem.
LS: How big of a role do they play in social dynamics here?
EO: I guess it’s hard to say because now that I’m a senior, I feel like the friends that I
have off campus aren’t really people that I met from random parties. They’re people
that I know from classes or like friends of friends, so they’re real relationships.
People really know me and so I don’t feel like anyone holds me to those standards
anymore. But definitely in the first couple years I feel like… I notice a lot of Scripps
girls lying about where they go to school and I’ve heard about a lot of guys at other
schools who have certain expectations for Scripps girls and will like target them
because of those expectations. Yeah.
LS: What do you think of the 5C social scene in general?
EO: I think it’s pretty frustrating. I had a really serious boyfriend the first two years
that I was here and so I didn’t really pay attention to that whole side of it. And I was
so busy making friends with everyone at Scripps that I didn’t really care about
making friends really with people either. But breaking up with my boyfriend, and so
experiencing that and then also kind of feeling really solid in my friends here and
like wanting to explore more has made me realize how difficult it is here. And it
doesn’t feel like the real world and I’m not sure why. Yeah, still trying to figure it
out.
10:26
LS: How acceptable are drinking and drug use here?
EO: Pretty acceptable, I’d say. Yeah.
LS: [laughs] And what do you think the dating scene like is here?
EO: I think the dating scene does not exist. But I guess I know my friends who date
are like my most attractive friends. And not to say that they’re not also wonderful
people, but I think that people are more likely to take them on a date because they…
I don’t know. They want to go farther than that, too. Yeah, I think the dating scene
doesn’t exist. I think it’s a hook up culture.
LS: What are the attitudes towards virginity and pre‐marital sex here?
EO: I think that it would be rare to find someone… actually… actually no. That’s not
true. Well, can I say this on camera? My friend… well, know actually, I shouldn’t say
that on camera. I think generally it’s viewed pretty negatively to be a virgin. I think
it’s expected–I think often times in this hook up scene it’s expected that you’ll just
have sex with random people.
LS: What do you think that comes from?
EO: I have no idea. Part of it is, I think, just the idea that these are four years that we
will never have again and we’re supposed to go as crazy as we possibly can. And that
after our time here, we’re going to have to be responsible. And these are good
schools and the kids here are really smart and I think a lot of people graduate and
they get real jobs and they begin real life. And I think there’s kind of pressure to like
let off steam. And also, I guess we work really hard here. But I think maybe it is just
a part of that: that these are the only four years that we can kind of get away with
whatever we want to get away with and I think it’s also just been like a vicious cycle
that people like wanted to start doing that and it slowly just became like what
people do and over time it just hasn’t really been questioned. But, I don’t, I don’t
really know.
LS: How do you think that differs from outside of the Claremont bubble? Do you
think it’s similar on other college campuses?
EO: I think that on other campuses you get to know people more. Like my friends
who go to Middlebury or Williams; those are small schools and they know people
and so hooking up randomly doesn’t really happen. And when you’re not hooking up
randomly, there’s a lot more discussion that goes into like premarital sex. And I
think there’s the ability to abstain if you want to because you are naturally going to
engage in conversation with those people who are like your friends or friends of
friends. But just because for whatever reason it’s so much more likely here to have
that be a random encounter.
LS: Do you think the fact that there are five schools here makes the random
encounter more possible?
EO: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. But, what’s weird is that 5,000 seems really big. But then
once you have that random encounter, you realize it’s not actually that random and
that person actually does know a billion other people that you know. But, but yeah,
definitely if it was smaller, I think it wouldn’t be as big of a problem.
LS: What do you think are the attitudes towards LGBTQ and that community?
EO: Well, the friends that I have are very much engaged in that community and so
I’m around a lot of people who have nothing but positive attitudes. But I’ve actually
been thinking about it a lot recently, as I’ve noticed that I’m definitely in a bubble.
And I’m not sure. I’ve talked to some people at Pomona even, who just feel so far
from that. So, it is most definitely not all encompassing here, but I think that
generally, I would like to think that The Claremont Colleges are kind of on the
forefront of a lot of the discussion about LGBTQ, and as I’ve learned its like “TTQ”
like the longest acronym ever. Yeah, I think that our discussions about gender here
are really interesting and really forward thinking. And it definitely doesn’t apply to
everybody here. I don’t think that CMC has forums where they talk about things like
that all the time. That’s a generalization, but I don’t know. I really appreciate that
about the colleges.
15:31
LS: Do you think that’s linked to the fact that it’s a women’s college?
EO: That’s a good question. I don’t know if it comes from Scripps because I feel like it
just as easily could come from Pitzer. I think part of it is. Like I was saying earlier,
that I think we have the ability here to figure ourselves out and question things and
kind of be whoever we want to be, and like within this very supported community.
So, I think it leaves a lot more room here for things like that to be questioned and
discussed, but definitely not only in Scripps.
LS: How does diversity play a role on campus?
EO: There is no diversity. There is very little diversity. I like that this year Antoinette
as president, she brought it more into the forefront of discussion, but I don’t even
really know how to answer that because everything that I’ve really encountered
with diversity has been a lot of like clashing heads and really tough discussions
about how hard it is that we don’t really have diversity here. And, you know,
discussions about the core curriculum, about how it really is just the focus of like
white history. And I think Scripps could, or all five colleges could do a lot to work on
that.
LS: What do you think they could do?
EO: I mean it’s hard. I think it’s hard in any elite college to pull from, I don’t know,
like the necessary areas and groups that would maybe need to be like pulled. But,
maybe like what people are talking about with the core thing: changing the
curriculum to kind of more encompass different perspectives of history and
different perspectives of our present. And another thing that I think would be
interesting here is if they can’t really bring in diversity, maybe we could bring in
more discussions of whiteness and white privilege and what that means. And so
engaging students that way. But, generally I think there are a lot of students and
faculty who would be willing to have discussions like that. So, I think they could
easily be implemented.
LS: And you mentioned about the core class. How do you think core, as a whole
series, has affected your experience here?
EO: Oh god. I don’t know if necessarily has, honestly. Core I, I liked, but I was never
really sure what I was supposed to be taking from it. Core II: I got stuck with a Core
II that I just didn’t want and that I really didn’t enjoy. Core III was awesome, but
generally, I don’t think the core like sparked any particular interest that wouldn’t
have been sparked otherwise or gave me any like terminology or language that I
wouldn’t have found otherwise. I can’t even remember what our theme was for core
my freshman year so, yeah.
LS: Which core courses were you in?
EO: The Nature of Nature. And I really liked this one with Cindy Forster, but I can’t
remember exactly... It was like “Race, Class and Gender in…” like “Working Los
Angeles.” And we all got internships and it was really cool. I worked at the Garment
Worker’s Center in downtown LA and it was really interesting, but we had a ton of
reading. Yeah, I liked that one.
LS: What is your major?
EO: Psychology
LS: And what made you choose psychology?
EO: It was kind of a process of elimination coming into school because I knew I
didn’t like math and I knew I wasn’t that great at science and didn’t want to do
English and I just love people. And I think I’ve always thought psychologically, so it
just kind of seemed natural when I got here.
19:58
LS: Do you have any post‐college plans yet?
EO: Yes, kind of. Okay. My post‐college plans are that I’m going to graduate and
move to Seattle because I spent the summer there and I love the city. I’m from the
Bay Area. And I’m going to move there and maybe do swim lessons because
apparently you can charge $50 an hour to do that. And I just want to make a bunch
of money. Somehow maybe stay on track with what I’m interested in and like
volunteer or do something like that. And then after six months or so maybe ‘til like
December when the weather in Seattle is just driving me insane, I want to travel.
And I’m thinking about a NOLS program, the National Outdoor Leadership School.
Or, because those are so expensive, I’ve also kind of mapped out like a travel up the
coast of Latin America for ten months plan doing random things like that. And then
after doing that for maybe ten months or something like that, three to ten months
depending on what I decide to do, I want to get a kind of real job, but mostly still
play. And then, I’m thinking like in three years from now, I’ll apply to graduate
school for occupational therapy in either Seattle or Boston or something like that.
LS: What made you choose that?
EO: Occupational therapy?
LS: Yeah.
EO: I had worked with autistic toddlers three years ago at the children’s hospital in
Oakland and I loved it. And then last summer I worked with kids with
developmental disabilities in a garden in Seattle and I loved that. And now I’m
writing my thesis on horticultural therapy. And so I think I want to do something
like that. And so occupational therapy is a really broad degree that I think would
allow me to kind of play around within those various interests and do something
that I like later on.
LS: How has Scripps helped you pursue these future goals?
EO: Well practically, the CP&R. Best. Love them. Love Gretchen. So that’s been really
helpful. But I like that Scripps has not forced me into thinking that I need to
graduate and get a full time job. And that I feel not only excited, but like very much
supported in my decision to kind of do whatever I want. And definitely graduating
from high school, The College Preparatory School, I would not have been comfortable
taking a three‐year long gap year just to kind of play around and to like work at a
pool and make money. And I think Scripps has made me feel like there are a lot of
ways to learn and a lot of ways to be a good and active member of society and that I
can be happy and do what I want while simultaneously kind of giving back. And so,
more than anything I feel like Scripps has taught me that I will be okay and it’s given
me the tools to be okay. And I think that I’m well educated and I understand the
world pretty well at this point. And like no one’s really said this so I don’t know
where this lesson is coming from but I feel pretty supported in my ideas of what I
want to do. Yeah.
LS: Is your family as supportive as you feel Scripps is?
EO: Yes, so that’s probably a big part of it too, as long as I make money. But I think
my family, I’m the first kid in the family and I think they’ve always been surprised.
The other thing is that Scripps has helped me. During my time here, I’ve done a lot of
internships and all kind of like along the same line of what I want to do. And I got a
grant my freshman year to work with the autistic toddlers in Oakland. And so I think
my family has always kind of been like, “Whoa! You have another internship?” and
like, “Whoa! That’s, that’s something!” And I think that they feel like I’m kind of
ahead of the game in some ways because I know what I want to do; I’ve had practice
with what I want to do. And so I think for that reason, they’re fine. They kind of trust
that I’ll be okay because I’ve kind of done it on my own up until this point and yeah.
So that’s probably a big part of it.
LS: Do you think that most of your peers here have similar experiences?
EO: You mean like getting internships and things like that?
LS: Mmhmm.
EO: Not necessarily. I know that like last summer a lot of my friends had really cool
jobs and internships. But not necessarily. I think a lot of my friends have similar
goals for after we graduate, but I don’t know if all of them really feel like they have
already started that path that they want to be on like I do.
25:08
LS: Did you go abroad?
EO: Yes, I went to Spain–Grenada.
LS: How was that?
EO: It was great! So great! Yeah, you want me to talk about it more?
LS: Yeah [laughs]
EO: I love Spain because… well, so I went abroad with… maybe you could cut this
out later, I don’t know if it will actually be relevant, but I went abroad with my exboyfriend
now. And that kind of tainted my whole experience there because we
essentially began breaking up when we decided to go together. And it was like the
first time we weren’t doing long distance and so that definitely tainted the
experience a little bit. But, apart from that, I love Spain because it calmed me down.
The Spanish are just, like you have three hours in the middle of the day or five hours
when everything shuts down and you have to go take a nap. And like you have to eat
and take a nap and spend time with you family. And I didn’t have that much work
and I could explore and it was a beautiful city and I loved my friends. And it was just,
it was a semester of just kind of like living life and realizing, which I think my grades
after I came back suffered because of that, because it was kind of like well the world
is not about school. But yeah and all my friends went abroad too and everyone kind
of came back with like a similar attitude. Most of them went to Latin America, but I
had an incredible time: learned Spanish, forgot it now, but I did know it, traveled a
lot. That was another thing, was I think that being abroad taught me also that I’m
kind of, for whatever reason, I feel really taken care of in the world. I went to Ireland
with my friend. It was just me and her and all these things almost went wrong, but
then something at the last minute would happen so that they didn’t and it could
have been a really bad situation but at the last minute it wasn’t. And I just left kind
of feeling safe and also capable. There were also so many times that I was just
completely lost or that we had just missed a train that we had to catch and we had to
figure something else out. So I felt a lot more independent, competent. I also spent
so much time in my own head in Spain because I lived farther away from – I
requested siblings and so I lived with one of the only families that had siblings and I
lived really far from my friends so I probably walked like two or three hours by
myself every single day. And I spent so much time in my own head and the result
was: well one, that I translated all these Christmas songs into Spanish, but two, that I
kind of learned to really love myself a lot and like trust myself and kind of consider
myself a friend in a way that I hadn’t before. All around great experience.
LS: That’s really cool. What has your favorite class been here?
EO: US Environmental History at Pomona with Char Miller.
LS: Why? What was great about it?
EO: He is an incredible professor in that the way he facilitates discussion is amazing.
He has a point that he wants you to reach and he won’t tell it to you, but the way that
he asks questions and gets people to kind of like dig into their own thoughts, he gets
us to come to the conclusions he wants us to come to. And the conclusions were just
fascinating! It’s a subject I’m really interested in and kind of related to what I’m
doing for my thesis. I’m really interested in the psychology of environmentalism and
of like environmental degradation. Like how did we get to the point that we’re at
here? And we talked a lot about that in his class so generally the subject was just
really interesting to me and it was re‐conceptualizing the way that we see the
wilderness. Yeah, I guess that’s mostly it. And the people in that class were fantastic
and everyone was smart and motivated and everyone did the reading. There was a
girl who audited the class and she would come to class with her book like
completely marked up ready to talk and like there was no one that was there just to
be there. Everyone really wanted to be there. We all had great chemistry and he’s
just such a fantastic teacher.
29:34
LS: What was the most memorable thing you’ve read in any class?
EO: That’s such a hard question. I bet if you gave me like a week, something would
pop into my head. I can’t think of anything except everything we read in that class.
Yeah, but I feel like there have been multiple times that it’s not like a full reading
ever, but just like an idea in a reading and I’m like, “Oh my god! I never thought of
that before!” Or, just any of those classes that I’ve had that get you to reconceptualize
the world. But, also here I feel like some of the most memorable
things that I have learned or read have been in like outside forums or like outside
movies or things that just haven’t been in the classroom at all.
LS: So apart from academics, what extracurricular activities are you involved in?
EO: I’m a lifeguard, but I only started that this year. I was really involved in the
Scripps Garden sophomore year. I helped paint that mural and we kind of like put it
together in a lot of ways because it had been ignored before that. So I was really
involved in environmental club for that whole year. What else have I done here? A
lot of my friends are involved in the motley and I pretend like I work there, but I
don’t. I’ve done a lot of stuff here, but I think I’ve kind of done a lot of it off campus.
Yeah. Something else might pop to mind but…
LS: What off campus things do you do?
EO: Well I had that thing at the Garment Worker’s Center. I tutored kids of
immigrant families in English last semester through a Spanish class at Pitzer. I
worked at a farm last spring: Amy’s farm, in Ontatio. And I fed all the animals and I
learned to drive a tractor and worked in the garden a little bit. What else have I
done? I feel like there’s more but I can’t think of it.
LS: How do you think these have shaped your Scripps experience?
EO: I feel like they have just complimented my experience. Most of the things I’ve
done have either been through classes or been through –like the farm, I learned
about the farm through environmental club. So I think that it’s given me like a more
well rounded idea of these things that I’ve learned here. Definitely.
LS: How do you think Scripps has changed over your time here?
EO: I don’t know if Scripps has changed, or if just the way that me and my friends
and my peers have learned to be in Scripps has changed. Because when I came here,
I was so much focused on myself and how I was doing and how I was going to be
okay and like my family back home and my life back home, that I don’t know if I
even really had a focus on anything real here. I was just kind of like going through
the motions and like trying to get by. And I don’t think I ever really thought deeply
about connections between students and faculty or the way that we approach
environmentalism or like any of the things that I really think about now just because
now that I’m so grounded in Scripps I think I have a completely different perspective
on it. So, I don’t know if I could even answer. But I do love LBV. She was new my
sophomore year. I think she’s great.
LS: What do you think she’s added to the Scripps community?
EO: I mean more than anything because I don’t know her that well, but I like that she
is approachable and accessible. I mean just that when I came in here we didn’t really
have a president. We had an interim president and he felt really distanced from the
students and I think that in a lot of ways she’s kind of like tied our community into, I
don’t know, into a whole, in a way that it wasn’t before her.
LS: What do you think is the role of politics on campus?
EO: What do you mean?
LS: Do you think students are politically charged in any ways?
EO: Yes, definitely. But I’m not sure what I could say about it. Yeah, I think
everyone’s pretty politically charged. And I think that there are a lot of students at
Pomona, Scripps, and Pitzer especially who are outspoken and who aren’t afraid to
question things. Because I think that we’re privileged here and that we’re able to
speak our minds and be socially active and without really any repercussion. So I
think that just calls for a lot of like political and social action and discussion. But
yeah, so that’s been great for me because when I came in here, I definitely didn’t
think much about social or political issues. Well, I mean I did, but not nearly to the
extent that I do now.
35:32
LS: What do you think the issues here are on campus?
EO: Also a hard question because I feel like its kind of everything. But students
generally are pretty liberal. Right now, the two main things are Occupy, which a lot
of students are either going to and experiencing for themselves or discussing with
others, and the Pomona workers thing that’s going on at Pomona where they’ve
asked workers and students and faculty to show their documentation. So, I think
those are the two biggest things going on.
LS: What do you think about the Occupy Claremont club?
EO: I don’t know that much about the Occupy club. I’ve been trying to figure out how
I feel about Occupy generally. I think that, because I went to Occupy LA last week
with a group of kids, or two weeks ago, and it was really interesting to see. What’s
the club doing? Are they just… are they like trying to organize like an Occupy
Claremont thing to have happen here?
LS: I’ve heard they’re getting clothes, or warm winter clothes to donate to occupiers
in the cities.
EO: Oh, okay, okay. Well then, in that case I think that sounds really cool. I think that
Occupy generally is really effective in that it shows that everyone knows what’s
going on. Everyone understands the injustice that is the corporate greed. And I like
the way that it unites people who ordinarily wouldn’t really have a voice, who don’t
have the privileges to be able to speak out politically. I like that Occupy is so
accessible that there are no specific or like not many specific political like
statements being made, or like parties that it’s being associated with. But, yeah.
That’s what I think about that, but not about the club, so I won’t continue.
LS: Because over the course of you time here has been a lot of big social, or social
and political things going on in the rest of the world. Do you think that students a lot
of times have been able to get out of the Claremont bubble?
EO: I was just talking about this with my friends the other day because we watched
Inside Job, which essentially just explained the financial situation since the
depression – the Great Depression. And all of us were saying, “Where the heck were
we in 2008?” because I missed everything! I was focused on the election. A lot of
people were talking about the election and there was a lot of discussion going on
surrounding that but apart from that, with the recession and everything, and what
was really causing the recession, and the arguments behind that went straight over
our heads. I think because we were so focused on being here. And if we were
sophomores, maybe it would have been different, but the fact that we were
freshmen as we were just trying to like get a grip on our situation here. I had no idea
about a lot of that stuff. So, in that sense, I don’t know. I feel like you have to make a
really big effort to get out of the Claremont bubble and especially just because, and I
don’t know if this is Claremont or just college, the amount with which we are
bombarded with work all the time. For me to just open up the New York Times and
read it feels like I need at least like a half hour window and I never feel like I have
that. So actually trying to put that in my day has been a struggle the last couple
years. And I’ve managed to do it but it’s weird how that kind of feels like a privilege,
rather than something I should absolutely be doing, you know? So, I think that
understanding what’s going on politically in the world is a challenge here.
LS: Do you go off campus often?
EO: I always do a little more at the beginning of the semester because I have a car
and so it’s possible for me to. But, not much, and usually when I do, my friends and I
just like go for a hike or something like that just to get away from school. But as the
semester progresses, it’s always impossible to find the time to do it.
40:08
LS: Do you participate in any sports?
EO: Mmm‐mm. I did swimming in high school and I wish I could do it here but I
don’t. I’m not good enough.
LS: Do you think people here, what do you think the atmosphere towards sports and
the sports scene?
EO: I really wish that there was a bigger sports scene. I think it’d be so fun to be able
to go to football games and things like that. And I did freshman year, but now I
definitely feel like if you don’t know people on the teams, it’s kind of weird just to
go. And, my dad’s always like, “Oh I heard about so‐and‐so” or like, “this team did
this.” And I’m always like, “I have no idea.” I don’t really pay attention to it. I wish it
was a bigger deal but I know nothing.
LS: Why do you think people don’t care about it?
EO: I mean on the one hand, we’re just not that good, I think generally. But also I
think because of like the way like our size or something. I feel like it calls for kind of
like what I said. If you don’t really know the people on the teams, I don’t know if
you’re going to be as inclined just to go and watch strangers because there’s no like
school pride. I feel like there’s friend pride, and you want to go and support your
friends, but at least at Scripps, yeah.
LS: Do you think it’s different on the other four C’s?
EO: I think it probably is. I think Pomona is like a normal school in a lot of ways.
They have school pride and they make up most of the sports teams on the Pomona‐
Pitzer teams because Pitzer’s so small. And so I think it’s like easier for them. And
same with like CMC: that they dominate the CMS team and so it’s easier for them to
have a little more pride. So probably. But for the other schools, I don’t really think
like… Pitzer and Scripps and Mudd are just kind like… there.
LS: Do you think that Scripps has its own pride even if its not necessarily sports
related?
EO: Yeah, I think that people who go to Scripps are proud that the go to Scripps
because it’s pride in being affiliated with like a certain family. And I think that most
people who graduate from here recognize the ways in which Scripps changed them
and their friends. Yeah, just like recognizing that connection and feeling pride in
kind of like knowing where you come from and like knowing your roots here.
LS: Is there anything we’ve talked about that you want to add to?
EO: I don’t think so. I can’t think of anything.
LS: Is there anything I have not addressed that you want to say?
EO: No [laughs]
LS: Awesome!
EO: Okay, thanks!
LS: Thanks!
43:10